Friday, November 28, 2008

In the news story below, we have another in a cavalcade of reports about a false rape claim where the reporter digs up some sexual assault advocate to proclaim, contrary to all the objectively verifiable evidence reported in this Web site, that false rape claims are rare.

What other crime is reported by insisting that it is not really a problem? Arson? Burglary? Why must every discussion of false rape claims devolve to a discussion of rape?

Writer Pat Pheifer also parrots the sexual assault advocate's citation to statistics based on "national studies."

What national studies, Ms. Pheifer? If you failed to substantiate this outlandish claim, you are an incarnate insult to journalism.

She twice claimed to have been sexually abused, but no evidence was found. Now she faces drug charges.By PAT PHEIFER, Star TribuneLast update: November 26, 2008 - 7:55 PM

A Brooklyn Park woman walked into Regions Hospital in St. Paul on Aug. 30 and said she had been sexually assaulted and was in pain, according to court documents. She was admitted and given narcotic painkillers. A specially trained nurse examined her.

Unfortunately for the woman, the sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) recognized Leticia N. Jones from a visit she had made to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis two days earlier, the documents said. In that case, Jones had walked into the Minneapolis hospital and said she had been sexually assaulted. She was examined and given the painkiller Dilaudid, documents said.

Further investigation found no evidence that the woman had been sexually assaulted on either day in either city, police and court documents said.

Jones, 35, was charged Nov. 5 in Hennepin County District Court with fifth-degree drug possession, a felony, in connection with the Aug. 28 incident. A search warrant affidavit filed Wednesday in Ramsey County District Court asks for medical records, case notes and other information from Regions in connection with the Aug. 30 incident. No charges have been filed in Ramsey County.

False reports of sexual assault are "very rare," said Donna Dunn, executive director of the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault. But they complicate the work of those who strive to help survivors of sexual assault and get them the help they need. National studies say only about 16 percent of rape victims report the assault.

"The most important thing to me is that we have worked to establish policy in the state of Minnesota that really supports survivors having ready access to medical attention as well as to services that can do evidence collection for sexual assault," Dunn said.

"That's a critical service we have to keep providing and have to keep trusting that our systems of investigation will uncover if someone is being fraudulent," she said.

Jones' first court appearance in Hennepin County is scheduled for Dec. 23.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

From reading the quotes of police officers and sexual assault advocates in news stories about false rape claims, as in the news story below, one would think that the only harm caused by this crime is to: (1) the hypothetical, phantom, possible, could-be, even unborn rape victims who might be, possibly will be, may be dissuaded by such lies from coming forward, and (2) the police forces that expend resources in trying to solve a crime that never happened. Rarely do they mention the class of citizens that is victimized by these lies.

Let's repeat after me: the primary harm of false rape claims is to men and boys who are targeted by police in their investigations, and often wrongly arrested and sometimes wrongly convicted. All other victims, all other harms -- are secondary.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

In the news story below, even though the false rape accuser received no jail time (and we have yet another case where a false rape accuser serves less jail time than her victim), we nevertheless finally find a judge who says what every faithful reader of this blog knows about false rape accusers: they are a danger to young men.Finally, here is a judge who understands that the primary victims of false rape claims are not the hypothetical, phantom, possible, could-be, even unborn rape victims who might be, possibly will be, may be dissuaded by such lies from coming forward.

Here is a judge who understands that the primary victims of false rape claims are the men and boys who actually are at risk of being arrested based on a lie.

Actual rape victims who might be dissuaded from coming forward are also victims -- but secondary victims.

Second: then there is the reputation issue. The girl and the mother are not named in the article. The teacher is. Let us be honest: there will always be someone who claims "something must have happened" even after it is determined that the claim was false. The very accusation becomes fact in the minds of too many people, an assumption planted by the rape hysteria fanned by an over-eager news media looking for sensational subjects to report and a public unfairly suspicious of male sexuality. It also underscores the need for men charged with rape to remain anonymous until convicted. A rape charge differs from any other claim in terms of the stigma and the harm it does to innocent persons; the media and the law, need to start acknowledging that reality.

SPOKANE -- A Ferris High School teacher and coach accused of raping a teenager has been cleared of all wrong doing.

Originally the girl and her mother went to the front desk of the Spokane Police Department to complain they were receiving harassing phone calls and when they were asked who was making those calls the mom responded it was the man who raped her daughter last year.

It was at that point that Ferris teacher and coach Don Van Lierop's name was dragged into the case and an investigation got underway.

Van Lierop was subsequently placed on paid administrative leave and has since voluntarily taken and passed a polygraph test.

No other witnesses have come forward to substantiate a rape claim and it wasn't until Thursday that the alleged victim agreed to be interviewed by detectives. However that interview never occurred and the teen did not reiterate the rape claim.

Van Lierop's attorney who has always maintained the coach was innocent now worries about Van Lierop being able to restore his reputation in the community.

"We can only hope that it will and hope that people understand false allegations do get made and it's tragic and it has horrific consequences and that's what's happened in this case," Attorney Kevin Curtis said.

In a statement released by his attorney Thursday night, Van Lierop says the last two weeks have been a nightmare for him and his family.

"I hope and pray everyone who has heard about these false allegations will also learn that I have been cleared of all allegations and understand that I am the victim of horrific lies," Van Lierop stated in the release.

Van Lierop is clear to return back to work at Ferris High School effective immediately, Curtis says Van Lierop will be back to coaching on Friday night.

"He's tremendously relieved tonight that the truth has come out but it still doesnt take away from what has happened to him and the damage to his reputation," said Curtis.

SPOKANE - The girl who wrongly accused Ferris high school boy's basketball coach Don Van Lierop of rape is not expected to face any criminal charges, according to Spokane Police.

Detectives exonerated Van Lierop Thursday afternoon, more than two-weeks after the 16-year-old girl and her mother made the accusation.

The girl's attorney admits she fabricated the whole story.

Van Lierop will return to practice Friday, but will not return to teaching until Monday because a substitute had already been arranged.Van Lierop released the following statement Friday through his attorney:

"The past two weeks of my life, and the life of my family, can only be described as a person's worst nightmare. Any husband, father, coach or teacher can only imagine what a person and his family go through when falsely accused of this kind of conduct.

I hope and pray that everyone who has heard about these false allegations will also learn that I have been fully and completely cleared of all allegations, and understand that I have been the victim of horrific lies.

I am looking foward to returning to my teaching and coaching duties at Ferris High School. I have dedicated my life to helping students and athletes become responsible citizens in the future, and will continue to do so."

The girl who made the accusation is currently undergoing counseling, according to attorneys.Spokane Police will hold a news conference Friday afternoon to discuss the case and release the police report. Because the accuser is a minor, and is not expected to face charges, it's unlikely her name will be released.

Monday, November 24, 2008

The news story below involves a woman who might be the ultimate male basher. She's angry at men, so she cries rape and causes one of them to be arrested.

It is astounding that some women who falsely accuse men of rape, and their counsel, attempt to justify the false accusers' actions with all manner of excuses that would never be reported or taken seriously if, for example, a male rapist attempted to justify his actions using similar excuses.

For example, suppose a rapist claimed the following: "I was angry at all women because they had treated me badly." Or, "My client was immature and didn't realize the gravity of his offense." Would anyone even listen to those excuses amidst the cries to "castrate him"?

By even entertaining such inane explanations from women, we are treating them as if they were infants, without responsibility or moral agency. In any other instance where women are treated as less than fully human, we hear a feminist outcry. Funny that we don't hear it for this, isn't it?

The judge told her: "Interfering with the course of justice is a serious matter and can lead to all sorts, as it could have done in this case, of trauma for those falsely arrested and falsely accused."

Friday, November 21, 2008

With mind-numbing and cookie-cutter redundancy, here is yet another story about yet another young woman who told yet another lie that she was raped.

Is there any other crime that is lied about with such frequency? Of course not. It is insulting to one's intelligence to suggest otherwise. Rape is lied about so frequently because it is so easy to lie about. And there are few consequences to lying.

Given the hysterical rape culture we are living in, the amazing thing is that there are not far more rape lies.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Try to imagine that you've been accused of a very serious crime you did not commit, and you knew there was a possibility no one would believe you. Think of the terror of knowing you might be sent to prison for years and years, wrongly convicted, based soley on another person's lie.

That's what happened here. And the woman who told the lie is only getting four months jail time for her malice. The custodial sentence is far too short, but at least there was a custodial sentence -- which is better than many similar cases.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Read the story below and ask yourself, what sort of middle-aged woman has unprotected sex with a 16-year-old boy, then decides that the best way to get a morning-after pill is to scratch herself, cry rape, tell the boy not to report her or he'll go to jail, and then tells police that an imaginary Hispanic man raped her?

A community is panicked and Hispanic men are put at risk of wrongful arrest -- all because a foolish woman had sex with a boy and wanted to make sure she didn't have his child. Sometimes foolishness is so egregious it needs to be punished.

By Austin L. MillerStar-BannerPublished: Friday, November 14, 2008 at 3:58 p.m. Last Modified: Friday, November 14, 2008 at 4:00 p.m.

OCALA – An Ocala woman who claimed she was raped on Aug. 6 while walking along Southwest 32nd Court is being held in Pennsylvania on charges of making up the story.

Marion County sheriff's officials say Sandra Lawrence, now 41, dreamed up the bogus rape because she'd had unprotected sex that day with a 16-year-old boy and wanted a morning-after pill.

The alleged false report - in which a Hispanic man susposedly dragged her into the woods raped her - prompted a manhunt and an all-out law enforcement effort, including a suspect sketch and the distribution of fliers.

On Nov. 3, Lawrence went to the Muhlenberg Township Police Department in Temple, Pa., and told police there that she had done "a terrible thing" in Florida by falsely reporting a rape to the Marion County Sheriff's Office, according to a Sheriff's Office report.

In a handwritten statement given to Pennsylvania authorities, Lawrence alleged the boy had raped her. To protect the boy, who she said is a family friend, and because wanted to get her hands on the morning-after pill, she told deputies that a Hispanic man had sexually assaulted her.

Lawrence, who recently moved to Pennsylvania and is in custody there, told Detective Owen Confessore in a Nov. 4 telephone interview that she had made up the rape.

The false report, she stold him, was to protect her family and so that she could obtain the pill to prevent pregnancy.

Also on Nov. 4, the boy's mother contacted a sheriff's detective to say that her son had had sex with Lawrence and that she had made a false report. The woman also said that she had let Lawrence know she was going to report her.

The teen, interviewed on Nov. 11, told Confessore that he and Lawrence had unprotected sex on Aug. 6. Afterward, he said, the woman told him she would fix it.

The boy said Lawrence thought that if she made the false report she would get the pill. Lawrence also reportedly told the boy not to tell or he would go to jail.

The boy said Lawrence scratched herself to fake injuries from the alleged rape.

He said Lawrence and he had another sexual encounter about a week later, after she had plied him alcohol.

Lawrence was being held on charges of unlawful sexual activity with a minor; tampering with or fabricating physical evidence; tampering with a victim, witness or informant; false report to law enforcement officials; and giving alcohol to person under 21.

JACKSON, MS (WLBT) - A woman who falsely reported a rape in Pearl was arrested late Thursday and may face criminal charges. Pearl police tell WLBT News they have been besieged by calls and e-mails from concerned citizens about allegations of a rape in that city.

A Rankin County woman claimed to have been assaulted Wednesday behind the Pearl Wal-Mart store on Highway 80. Detectives were quickly assigned to the case. Yet the would be victims [sic] stories changed repeatedly throughout the investigation. Lt. Butch Townsend in the Crimainal Investigation Division of the Pearl Police Department said, "After a pretty intense investigation, it was revealed that the allegations of rape were falsely filed.

The woman could face felony charges. "She can indeed and we are contemplating those charges at this time,." according to Townsend.

The investigators said the unidentified woman could not give any description of the suspect and there was no physical evidence to support her claims. She made an intial court appearance Thursday and was booked on a $10,000 bond. Authorities have no idea why the woman filed a false rape report.

Monday, November 17, 2008

A dentist was put through hell after being charged with sexually assaulting a patient who, according to the defense counsel, "had a history of making false statements before her February allegations to police that Dr. Demos groped her and asked inappropriate questions about her sexual past during a visit to get an X-ray."

The dentist was acquitted following a non-jury trial.

How terribly easy it is to allege sexual assault. And what a terrible toll it takes on innocent men. Here one can only imagine the damage to this poor man's medical practice.

Will this man be one of the "rapists" that the feminist stats include in their discussions of "rapists" who escaped convicted? I suspect he will be, given that the sole criteria for inclusion in that list is that a woman accuses a man of rape. The truth of the allegation be damned.

And that tells you everything you need to know about their statistics and the rape hysteria they have concocted from whole cloth.

The defense argued that Dr. Demos' accuser, Susan Butler, had a history of making false statements before her February allegations to police that Dr. Demos groped her and asked inappropriate questions about her sexual past during a visit to get an X-ray.

Ms. Butler, 54, of McKeesport, has been charged with multiple retail thefts and pleaded guilty to theft and disorderly conduct charges last year.

"It was totally untrue," said Mr. Demos, who was choked up after the verdict. "This lady lied continuously, start to finish."

Mr. Demos' attorney, John Elash, said the allegations likely were a "copycat situation" because charges against another dentist had recently been in the news.

In January, Dr. Robert John Boyda Jr., an oral surgeon from Mt. Lebanon, was charged with sexually assaulting several young female patients while they were under anesthesia or recovering from surgery in his offices in Robinson and Scott. Dr. Boyda's trial is scheduled for April.

Another false rape claim goes unpunished. And another news account about a false rape claim that stresses that actual rape victims should come forward. Not a word is mentioned that a false rape claim sometimes results in the arrest of an innocent man or boy.

What does it tell other young women who see that a false accuser is given no punishment? It tells them, "this can't be very serious."

POLICE have this afternoon (Wednesday) released a statement saying that the girl who claimed she was raped has admitted that she lied.

We revealed online this morning that the case had been stopped after the teenager retracted her statement.Officers put out a warning that other timewasters may face charges - but no action will be taken against the 17-year-old in this case.

The girl told police she was forced off the street and raped in the grounds of Warwickshire College's Rugby Centre at about midnight on Saturday.

A police spokesperson said a few minutes ago: "The woman has been interviewed by officers this week in relation to the allegation and this morning admitted that the incident did not take place."

Detective Chief Inspector Adrian Pearson said: "Warwickshire Police is committed to protecting people from harm and we take all reports of sexual assault seriously.

"We do not want to discourage any victim from coming forward with genuine reports, which we know can be difficult for them, but anyone who makes a false allegation effectively wastes police time and resources and should be warned that action may be taken against them."

On Sunday a major investigation was launched and I would like to thank all members of the public who came forward to help us by responding to the appeals for information."

Friday, November 14, 2008

Read the following tragic story about a professor's apparent suicide over a sexual harassment claim. At the end, you will read deplorable comments of a sexual assault advocate (highlighted in blue) that seem to assume the guilt of anyone against whom such an accusation is made.

A University of Iowa oboe professor accused of sexual harassment apparently committed suicide Wednesday afternoon, and university officials are saying they offer counseling to try to avoid such incidents.

Iowa City police records show authorities responded to Mark Weiger's home at 3:41 p.m., where they found a male in a vehicle apparently dead. He was stiff and cold to the touch, according to police reports.

Iowa City police Sgt. Troy Kelsay said he couldn't comment on the incident Wednesday evening.Last week, a former UI graduate student filed a federal lawsuit against Weiger, accusing him of sexually harassing her on a daily basis during the 2006-07 school year. Melissa Rose Walding Milligan of West Lafayette, Ohio, contends in the lawsuit Weiger made derogatory sexual comments to her.

Milligan couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday night.

Weiger's apparent suicide is the second such incident this fall. Former UI political-science Professor Arthur Miller fatally shot himself with a rifle at Hickory Hill Park after he was accused of accepting sexual favors in exchange for higher grades.

Weiger's two-story house was dark Wednesday night, with no cars parked in the driveway - a different scene from earlier in the afternoon, when squad cars and ambulances crowded the street, neighbors said.

Matthew Olson, a neighbor of Weiger for around four years, said he never expected Weiger to commit suicide.

"It's so bizarre, because you talk to people, and you never know they're clearly having this struggle inside," he said. "With Mark, I never would've known."

Olson said he and Weiger would chat about family, traveling, and music theories.

UI Human Resources officials have begun counseling members of the UI School of Music, UI spokesman Steve Parrott said.

They met Wednesday night with faculty, staff, and students to discuss the incident and formulate a plan to help people cope. These meetings will continue, Parrott said.

"Other than that, we would hope that people in the university community would do their best to reach out to express sympathy and offer support," Parrott said. "It's been a tough year for us."Arthur Rowe, a friend and former UI colleague of Weiger's, said sexual-harassment lawsuits frequently result from false accusations. He said such allegations - especially if it reaches the press - "can be devastating to people."

Rowe said a similar suit was brought against another one of his former colleagues, and the man nearly left the university. Weiger may have felt similarly, Rowe speculated.

"He has no family," Rowe said. "I don't know how much support he had."

Although it's too soon to say what effect this specific incident will have on university policy, Parrott said the current sexual-assault procedures will soon change. Such policies have come under much public scrutiny this semester after a former UI student-athlete alleged two former football players sexually assaulted her in Hillcrest.

Parrott said faculty accused of misconduct can go to the Office of the Ombudsperson and have confidential conversations to determine how to protect their reputation and resolve the problem.Additionally, the university offers separate counseling services for both faculty and students when these incidents occur, he said.

Karla Miller, the director of the Rape-Victim Advocacy Program, declined to comment specifically about Weiger, but she said after such apparent suicides, it could emotionally affect the victim who reported the harassment.

"It would be only natural to wonder why an individual would do this," she said. "Unfortunately, what can happen is the response that some people make is to blame the victims, and that's inappropriate.

In your story, “Accused U. Iowa music professor victim of apparent suicide” (Nov. 13), you report on the tragic death of Professor Mark Weiger from an apparent suicide following an accusation of sexual harassment. One of the persons you interviewed properly noted that “sexual-harassment lawsuits frequently result from false accusations.”

However, you also quote Karla Miller, the director of the Rape-Victim Advocacy Program, who refused to speak about Prof. Weiger specifically but used the occasion of his tragic death to implicitly assume the guilt of every person accused of sexual harassment. Specifically, she said that the suicide of a person so accused “could emotionally affect the victim who reported the harassment.” She makes sure to add that after such a suicide, “some people . . . blame the victims, and that's inappropriate. The victims are never to blame."

Did you get that? Before a single scrap of evidence is admitted at trial, the person who reported the sex offense is declared the “victim” who is “never” to blame for a tragedy such as Prof. Weiger’s suicide -- the facts, the evidence, and due process itself be damned. While Ms. Miller’s comments were not directed specifically at Prof. Weiger, it is difficult to see how he could not be included in her rush to judgment that improperly assumes the guilt of every person accused of a sex offense.

Our Web site http://falserapesociety.blogspot.com is designed to raise awareness about false rape claims using objectively verifiable and ideologically unbiased information. At least nine percent and likely more than 25% of all rape claims are false, for instance. I can’t speak about Ms. Miller aside from what the article reports, but we find that, in general, the sexual assault advocacy industry is notoriously biased and is inclined to rush to judgment and assume the guilt of every person (almost always men) accused of a sex offense. When that ideological bias besmirches the reputations of persons like Prof. Weiger, who no longer have an opportunity to defend themselves or to prove their innocence, it is unacceptable and morally grotesque.

See the news story below: It is amazing how quickly police decide not to charge young women and teens who have lied about being assaulted. Under different conditions, this same lie might have spiralled out of control to nab an innocent man or boy. People need to be deterred from making such claims, and the only way to to do that is to mete out some punishment.

Police yesterday said a 15-year-old who claimed she was abducted and assaulted last night on the North Side made up the story because she had stayed out past her curfew and was afraid to go home.

Police found the girl after she was reported walking along Route 65 "looking distressed."After interviewing her yesterday, detectives determined her distress was caused by missing curfew. The girl, who was not identified, will not be charged. The family has been referred to counseling.

The news story reprinted below tells us much about the rape culture that insists rape is oozing from every crevice and that the very allegation of a rape by a girl is sacrosanct regardless of whether the facts refute that allegation. Here, another teenager falsely cried rape to cover up a sexual encounter. The police admit her story was bogus but make the following astounding assertion: “We are still treating her as a victim and we do believe something happened.”

You see, our false rape culture is one where a girl can insist on wrapping herself in the mantle of victimhood merely by saying she was victimized by a male, regardless of whether the facts refute it, and it is impossible to unwrap her regardless of what the facts show.

Yes officers, you are correct. "Something happened." A crime occurred, no question, and here's what it was: a girl lied about rape. Again.

And once again it sounds as if the police aren't going to take it seriously. So it will continue to happen with frightening regularity.

A 15-year-old girl lied about being raped in a Palatka High School bathroom last week to cover up a sexual encounter she had off-campus, authorities said this afternoon.

The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office is continuing to investigate the actual encounter she had and have not decided whether to charge her with filing a false police report, said Capt. Rick Lashley.

Lashley said a detective received information over the weekend that the girl’s initial story was fabricated and deputies confirmed that in a meeting with her this morning.

The girl told deputies she was attacked after being dragged into a second-floor bathroom during school Oct. 27. She said she was held at knifepoint and raped. The girl returned to class and didn’t report the incident until getting home hours later. Her mother called deputies.

The Sheriff’s Office released information about the reported rape three days later, including a composite sketch of the person the girl said committed the attack. Deputies based the sketch on details from the girl, surveillance video taken from near the time she said she was attacked and other accounts.

School officials responded to the reported rape by sending letters home with students and taking phone calls from worried parents.

But Lashley said the girl’s story, including details included in the sketch, was bogus. Lashley didn’t have details about when or where the girl had the actual encounter. After her mother reported the rape to police, the girl was taken for an examination that showed she had sex, deputies said.

“We are still treating her as a victim and we do believe something happened,” Lashley said.

“Hopefully we’ll get to the bottom of it. When the investigation is finished, we’ll decide whether to charge her with filing a false police report.”

Thursday, November 13, 2008

A college student's lie that she had been raped, which lie led to an "intense" investigation, has been found to be "UNFOUNDED." http://upolice.buffalo.edu/alertlist.php#13 In this particular case, "UNFOUNDED" means "false" because the student admitted she made up the whole thing. (Many rape advocates try to insist that any time the term "unfounded" is used, it should be assumed that a rape might have occurred, and that a man or boy presumed innocent should carry the taint of "possible rapist" for the remainder of his life. Here we know that this particular "unfounded" means "false.")

Precisely what does that mean -- her "current personal situation"? Is it any wonder that false reporting is so common when police coddle this particular class of criminal (false rape accusers) in this manner?

In fact, the police furnish no reason for not pursuing charges against this woman. But one suspects the decision was prompted by political or ideological reasons, judged by the biased -- but ever so politically correct -- assertion tacked onto the end of the University Police Alerts and Timely Warnings List: "However, it is important to note that false reporting in such cases is rare and sexual assaults tend to be underreported. UB police encourage crime reporting; we take all crime reports seriously and continue to investigate them until they are formally closed."

As for underreporting: this is the great mystery. It is well to note that the "fact" of widespread underreporting is posited by persons who embrace sexual assault studies that inflate the incidence of rape by including consensual sexual encounters. The vast majority of women who were raped according to one famous study did not believe they were raped, even when informed that, in the view of the persons conducting the study, they had been raped. http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_1_campus_rape.html and http://www.leaderu.com/real/ri9502/sommers.html (You see, according to the paid sexual assault advocates, we must believe women when they say they were raped, but we can't believe women when they say they weren't raped or when they recant a rape claim. Get it? Neither do we.) Accordingly, if the studies finding rampant underreporting classify as "rape" such consensual encounters, then the underreporting scare is grossly inflated.

A student who claimed to have been kidnapped and raped on UB's North Campus last year has told University Police that the incident never happened.

The woman's December 3, 2007 claim was investigated by University Police, but detectives were unable to find any physical evidence or witnesses, said University Police Chief Gerald Schoenle. "This incident created an atmosphere of concern on campus, and we think it is important for everybody at UB to know that we have determined that the alleged crime never took place."

Schoenle said that it is against the law to make false statements to the police, but the university has decided it will not press charges against the woman, who is no longer a student and does not reside in the Buffalo area.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Every once in a while, an injustice regarding a man falsely accused or convicted of rape (and in this case murder as well) attracts high profile attention. It happened in the Duke lacrosse case (but, at least initially, most of the attention in that case was from persons rushing to judgment to assume their guilt).

The following is a New York Times article that reports on the efforts of 30 former FBI agents to have four men they claim are innocent released from prison. It is difficult to fathom from reading this balanced account that these four men could be guilty.

One of the retired agents summed it up in a way that is impossible to refute: “We are not bleeding hearts, and we don’t take this type of public action lightly . . . . However, we also believe that law enforcement has an obligation to protect the most innocent from wrongful conviction.”

RICHMOND, Va. — F.B.I. agents rarely comment on criminal convictions. It is even more uncommon for them to argue that someone has been wrongly convicted.

But on Monday, 30 former agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation took up the cause of four sailors, known as the Norfolk Four, who were convicted in a 1997 rape and murder.

Arguing that DNA and forensic evidence points to a prison inmate who has confessed as the sole perpetrator of the crimes, they called on Gov. Tim Kaine to pardon the sailors.

“After careful review of the evidence we have arrived at one unequivocal conclusion: The Norfolk Four are innocent,” said Jay Cochran, a former assistant director of the F.B.I. and former special agent who served at the bureau for 27 years. “We believe a tragic mistake has occurred in the case of these four Navy men, and we are calling on Governor Kaine to grant them immediate pardons.”

The former agents join a long list of unusual supporters, including four former Virginia attorneys general; 12 former state and federal judges and prosecutors; and a past president of the Virginia Bar Association, who have called for the men to be pardoned.

In January 2006, 13 jurors from two of the sailors’ trials signed letters and affidavits saying they now believed the men were innocent.

The sailors initially confessed to the crime after being threatened with the death penalty if they did not cooperate. But they quickly recanted. Three of the four — Derek Tice, Danial Williams and Joseph Dick Jr. — are serving life sentences in Virginia prisons for the rape and murder. A fourth man, Eric Wilson, was released in 2005 after serving eight and a half years for the rape conviction.

After the sailors were arrested, another man, Omar Ballard, confessed that he committed the crimes. His DNA matched evidence from the scene, while none of the arrested sailors, who numbered seven at one point, had DNA that matched the evidence.

Mr. Ballard had a history of violence against women in the Norfolk neighborhood where the victim, Michelle Moore-Bosko lived. Mr. Ballard was convicted in her rape and murder, along with two other sexual assaults in her neighborhood.

The former agents, 26 of whom sent the governor a letter in July calling for a pardon for the sailors, said the forensic and crime scene evidence showed that only one person sexually assaulted and killed the victim. Mr. Ballard knew the victim and her husband because they had opened the door to their apartment and rescued him when he was being chased by a crowd of men in reaction to an assault on a woman about two weeks before Ms. Moore-Bosko was killed.“We are not bleeding hearts, and we don’t take this type of public action lightly,” said Mr. Cochran, who, like the other dozen agents gathered at a Richmond hotel for a news conference, was wearing a blue button that said “Free the Norfolk Four.” “However, we also believe that law enforcement has an obligation to protect the most innocent from wrongful conviction.”

Ms. Moore-Bosko’s mother, Carol Moore of Pittsburgh, could not be reached for comment.

But in a statement in January, she said: “Derek Tice and the Norfolk Four confessed to the rape and murder of our daughter. These men are guilty and we pray that our family will not have to suffer through any more appeals.”

The governor’s office declined to comment on the case except to say that it was still reviewing the clemency petition.

George H. Kendall, a lawyer helping with the pardon effort, said that in all likelihood police investigators elicited one false confession and used it and the threat of the death penalty to set off a “domino effect,” resulting in the others.

Serious inconsistencies suggested the confessions were not legitimate, the agents said. The accounts did not mesh with the evidence. The tidy appearance of Ms. Moore-Bosko’s apartment and pattern of her wounds suggested a single assailant, not seven, as the police originally contended. The stories of the four men contradicted one another. Above all, the police found no physical evidence tying the four sailors, a least one of whom lived in Ms. Moore-Bosko’s neighborhood, to the murder scene.

In early 1999, when seven men were in jail awaiting trial in the killing of Ms. Moore-Bosko, Mr. Ballard wrote a letter from prison bragging to a friend that he had committed the crime. He provided a detailed account of the killing and insisted that he had acted alone.

By then, Mr. Williams had pleaded guilty, with an agreement that he would not receive the death penalty. He was not allowed to withdraw his plea. Mr. Dick had made a plea bargain in exchange for testimony against Mr. Tice. Mr. Tice had given a tape-recorded confession, although some details he provided about the crime were inaccurate. Mr. Wilson was charged only with rape.

The other three sailors did not confess, and charges against them were eventually dismissed.

“The governor is really the only person in a position to see the entirety of the evidence regarding these men,” Mr. Kendall said, noting that each defendant had been tried separately.

Moreover, he said the jurors and judges during the trials never heard that the detective who had elicited the confessions had been reprimanded before for having elicited false ones. They also did not hear about Mr. Ballard’s history of sexual assaults in Ms. Moore-Bosko’s neighborhood.

Shaking her head, Rhea Williams, the mother of Danial Williams, said she found it encouraging but emotionally exhausting to hear the F.B.I. agents present their views on the case. As she went to get coffee for her 14-hour drive back to Owosso, Mich., her eyes filled with tears.

“The only problem with these things,” Ms. Williams said, “is that we still have to go home without our boys.”

After big police response, 13-year-old admits she made the whole thing up

Saturday, November 01, 2008

By PHIL HELSELADVANCE STAFF WRITER

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Police descended on the Petrides School yesterday after a student there claimed she'd been taken to the basement and raped by four men in costumes -- but the account was a fabrication, she later admitted to cops.

Parents were panicked and rumors flew through the Sunnyside complex after the 13-year-old reported she'd been raped at about 12:45 p.m. She was taken to Staten Island University Hospital, Ocean Breeze, and later confessed that she'd concocted the whole thing, police said.

"None of what she said happened actually occurred," said a police spokesman, who was baffled as to the motive for the tall tale.

The allegation sent rumors flying through the school, and some students sent their parents text messages that a student had been raped by Bloods street gang members as part of an initiation.

"People were definitely talking about a Bloods initiation," said one 10th-grade student yesterday afternoon. "Basically, teenagers do what they do; you heard all kinds of things."

Police said that as of last night, the girl had not been charged with any crime.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Below are two news stories from the student newspaper of the University at Buffalo.

The first story is from last December reporting on an alleged rape. Notice I said "alleged." The story treated the accusation as an actual rape, not an "alleged" rape, based solely on one person's accusation.

Would the student newspaper report anything else as "fact" based on one person's allegation? That a rabid dog was on the loose? That a UFO had been sighted? Any such stories would make it clear that the allegation was posited by one person and was otherwise unsubstantiated.

The second story is from November 2008, explaining that the rape reported in the first story never occurred.

Shock.

But note that, with all the political correctness it can muster, the second story from November 2008 uses the false rape claim as an occasion to fan the flames of -- you guessed it -- rape hysteria. Note that the story does not use the false claim as an occasion to educate the public about the prevalence of and harm caused by false rape claims. On the contrary: the story goes out of its way to minimize the prevalence of false rape claims. This is typical, and in fact it is customary for news outlets and police organizations to follow the lead of the sexual assault advocacy industry and insist that if false rape claims hurt anyone, it is -- you guessed it again -- women. We've previously explained how women became the primary "victims" of a crime that only targets men.

How is it that in news story after story dealing with false rape claims, the reporters always seem to find someone who insists that false rape claims are not a problem? Note that in news stories about arson we never read someone insisting that arson isn't a problem but that the real problem is robbery. Or murder. Yet some people believe that the slightest suggestion that false rape claims are a serious matter would somehow hurt the cause of raising awareness about rape and bringing actual rapists to justice. They can't seem to understand that rape and false rape claims are both crimes and that neither should be ignored, and that they are two different things -- apples and oranges. And it is appalling that persons in the sexual assault advocacy industry rely on made-up statistics, such as the two percent lie, to support their rape advocacy.

Sadly, as regular readers of this Web site know, when it comes to false rape claims, one radical feminist lie is piled atop the next until they all collapse upon one another to reveal a sort of Rorschach inkblot of unmistakable misandry -- a culture where false rape claims are completely acceptable, indeed encouraged because they are not taken seriously and are not properly deterred. The losers are the innocent men and boys who are snagged in the web of lies weaved by false rape accusers.

Two males forcibly took an undergraduate student from the Lake LaSalle parking lot on Monday, Dec. 5 at approximately 5 p.m. The student was taken to a remote on-campus location where she was sexually assaulted.

According to UB Police Chief Gerald Schoenle, the victim reported being forcibly pushed into a car by the assailants.

"The car was driven to a location that we think might have been a gravel parking lot close to the (Newman) chapel," Schoenle said. "She was (then) sexually assaulted by the passenger in the vehicle."

The attack happened during a very short window of time, Schoenle said. University Police estimate that the attack began at approximately 4:55 p.m. and ceased when the victim was returned to the Lake LaSalle lot at approximately 5:10 p.m. The victim then called the University Police from her cell phone.

At this time, there are no named suspects.

"We do have a good description of the driver as a white male with brown hair, side burns and a hoop earring in his right ear," Schoenle said. "We don't have a good description of the passenger because he was wearing a black ski mask and gloves."

According to the victim, the car she was taken in was a full-size, four-door gray vehicle with a large amount of rust over the right passenger wheel well.

"There was apparently a UB hang tag in the car," Schoenle said. "We don't know if it was a UB student, faculty member or staff member, or even if it was a current UB hang tag that she noticed in the car."

According to Schoenle, the victim was alone when she was taken, and he recommends that everyone take precautions to remain safe on and off campus.

"We always recommend students be cognizant of their surroundings and to call the University Police if they're suspicious of something," Schoenle said. "Walk in lighted paths, and walk with a friend as much as possible. We also encourage students to use the services of the Anti-Rape Task Force."

Schoenle said that at this time there does not seem to be a correlation between this attack and the attack that occurred at the Sweet Home Apartment Complex in the spring. There is also no connection to the previous robbery that occurred near the same location.

"That was a random robbery incident, and the individual is still in jail," Schoenle said.

December rape claim determined to be falseSTEPHANIE SCIANDRA - Editor in Chief

University police have determined that a December rape and kidnap claim on UB North Campus never happened.

The student told police that on Dec. 3, she was taken from the Lake LaSalle Parking Lot to a remote location and sexually assaulted, as previously reported by The Spectrum in the article "Student raped in North Campus Attack" [Dec. 5, 2007].

The University Police Department has been unable to find physical evidence or witnesses to the attack, according to Chief of University Police Gerald Schoenle.

"There was no physical evidence to back up her story, so we had some suspicion right after it happened," Schoenle said late Thursday afternoon. "Ultimately, the alleged victim signed a statement [saying] it didn't happen."

Schoenle said that though this crime was deemed to be false, sexual assaults are highly underreported. He encourages true victims of sexual assault to report the incident.

"We want to encourage people to report... It's pretty rare for somebody to report a sex offense that didn't occur," Schoenle said. "Sexual assaults are, in general, one of the most underreported crimes, and it's probably even more so on college campuses."

Schoenle said that the most common perpetrator in sexual assaults is someone the victim knows."In most cases, the sex assaults are not stranger sexual assaults, they are acquaintance assaults," he said.

The woman who reported the attack is no longer a student, according to Schoenle. While falsely reporting a sexual assault is a crime, Schoenle said the police have decided against pressing charges.

"With the totality of the whole circumstances behind her statement to us, we felt that it would be her best interest not to [pursue criminal charges]," Schoenle said.

Friday, November 7, 2008

Regarding the news story below: Imagine if you or a loved one were one of the three men targeted as possible suspects because of this woman's rape lie. Imagine the terror of knowing that you might be singled out and arrested for a vile crime that you did not commit.

All because a foolish young woman -- wanted a day off from work.

You read that right: a day off from work.

What a vile, cold-hearted person she must be.

The story contains certain misinformation -- especially the assertion that only two percent of rape claims are false (as we show throughout this Web site, it's more likely nine percent and probably closer to half). And the motivation for rape is not primarily to obtain attention, as we have explored elsewhere on this Web site -- it's to hide a sudden, unexpected illicit consensual sexual relationship. Such misinformation is common to these stories, and is one of the reasons we have this Web site.

Marlow -Rape is a traumatic crime, and when police get a call reporting sexual assault, it's taken very seriously. Police want to make sure that the person responsible for the crime is locked up and prevented from attacking anyone else, but 2% of all rape cases reported are discovered to be false accusations.

Police in Marlow say that's exactly what happened when an 18-year-old woman fabricated a report of rape. Many women who falsely report rapes are seeking attention - good or bad. However, in this case, police say the young woman who admitted to falsifying two rape reports only wanted a day off from work.

After Trisha Bonney called police and reported having been raped, community doors were locked, windows were shut, and police patrol was out in force. Bonney claimed she had arrived home to discover a man was in her house. She told the police that the man grabbed her, threw her to the bed, and raped her. Butch Mann works at the nursing home across the street from where Bonney lives. "The young girl came out and was sitting in the chair, crying," said Mann. "You just thought, ‘It's a devastating deal.'"

Police say that when they responded to the scene, they had trouble compiling all the evidence. There were no witnesses, so Marlow police expended hundreds of hours of manpower in hopes of capturing her alleged attacker. One week later, she called police again. "She had another intruder and we were right on top of it," said Marlow Police Chief Bob Hill. Again, no one saw the supposed rapist. "There was two people standing in the alley, and they had been smoking," said Hill. "Two carpenters were working on the house next door, and they didn't see anything. There was still dew on the ground, and there weren't any tracks."

After police interrogated, fingerprinted, and swabbed three men for DNA samples, Bonney admitted to making the entire thing up. "She said the reason she filed the second report was to add credibility to the first one, because we were questioning her and pinning her down on certain items," Hill said.

Marlow police say that they increased their manpower by about 30% while searching for a nonexistent rapist. What's worse, the community was up in arms, and Bonney's new neighbor moved out because she was so terrified. Marlow police have charged Trisha Boney with falsifying a police report, and say the crime is punishable by fine, and even jail time.Link: http://www.kswo.com/Global/story.asp?S=9247223

Thursday, November 6, 2008

In the news story below, police do not seem overly concerned that a school teacher made up a fantastic story about being raped. And what if a hapless male had been targeted and arrested for this supposed crime? Read this Web site and you will see such things happen. And what's to stop this false accusing from picking out another teacher or a student sometime and accusing him of rape? Nothing's to stop her, if she's not deterred now from doing it again.

Last week, Cottonwood police learned a school teacher at Bella Vista elementary was forced out of her classroom, dragged outside and raped.

"We found out that the rape allegedly happened at around 7:30 Thursday morning,” said police spokesman Beau Babka. “We were notified later that night."

Police started to investigate the horrific crime Friday morning.

“The big factor was did we have a predator on our hands,” said Babka.

And that was a big concern for police and the school. Were teachers and students in danger?

Police stepped up patrols, but weren't sure who they were looking for.

"We had no information, it was an unknown type of a suspect, things were very sketchy at the time and so we did some investigation," he said.

By late Friday, investigators realized something wasn't right. For example, if the teacher was taken from her classroom, police wanted to know ‘why didn't surveillance cameras in and outside the building show this?’

"It became a red flag for us about two days after the report,” Babka said.

Police said she finally confessed Monday. The story was made up.

"She's going through some problems and some issues and that's obvious to us,” Babka said. “We hope she can work through those problems. We hope she can take care of whatever issues she has."

Babka said it’s unlikely the police department will recommend any charges against the school teacher. “But that will be up to prosecutors,” said Babka.

Filing a false police report is a Class A misdemeanor punishable to up to a year in jail.

A spokesperson for the Jordan school district said the teacher was not in school today.

The district plans to conduct an internal investigation. Under normal circumstances the teacher is placed on administrative leave pending the outcome.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

As the news story below shows, the woman who falsely cried "rape" at Anderson University has been charged with a crime and could spend a year behind bars. The liar had been engaging in consensual sex and with another student, but later claimed she had been raped by a menacing black man.

While the story references the fact that the campus community was on alert for a rapist, it doesn't mention the very real possibility that the police might have targeted an actual black man who just happened to match her description. That, of course, would have been the greatest injustice of all. And it happens with alarming frequency.

ANDERSON — Prosecutors have filed a misdemeanor count of false informing against an Anderson University student who claimed she was raped early this month in her campus apartment.

Prosecutors charged Sarah D. Nixon, 21, New Albany, with the Class A misdemeanor on Oct. 17, the day after Dean of Students Brent Baker announced during morning chapel services that the crime had been fabricated.

Nixon could not be reached at her home. A woman who answered the phone there said she would likely not comment on the charge.

Nixon had not been arrested. Instead, prosecutors issued a summons for her, or an attorney on her behalf, to make an initial court appearance in Anderson City Court in November, City Court Prosecutor Eric Saltzmann said Friday. It wasn’t immediately known if Nixon had hired an attorney.

The charge is punishable by up to one year behind bars and a fine of up to $5,000.

According to a probable cause affidavit:

Nixon, who is black, told investigators she had been raped by a black man wearing black clothing and a black ski mask inside her Chestnut Street apartment between 10 and 11 a.m. Oct. 6.

She told police she had left her apartment, forgotten an item and returned to her home. The suspect came from behind a wall in the apartment and attacked her.

Nixon said the man held her down, forced off her pants and raped her. Afterward, she told police, he bragged that he was “‘the luckiest man on campus, and how others wished he could be him,’” Detective Larry Crenshaw writes in the affidavit. The attacker then thanked her and walked out of the apartment.

Nixon then went to an 11 a.m. class without incident. She later reported the attack to AU’s director of counseling services. Nixon initially said another student had been raped, but then said she was the actual victim.

“Nixon gave a different statement, saying she was having consensual sex with another student when something happened in which she didn’t agree,” Crenshaw’s affidavit reads. “She confessed to making up the alleged rape, but said she lied because she felt that others would not have believe her.”

Nixon told detectives she made up the rape story because she believed it would have been handled “‘on campus,’” according to the court document. Nixon told investigators she knew she should have come forward with the truth sooner, and that her claim “put thousands of campus students and citizens on alert for a rapist ... ”

It wasn’t immediately known if Nixon remained an AU student. University officials could not be reached for comment late Friday, but Casey said he believed she had been dismissed from the school.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

In the news story below, a woman lied that her ex-boyfriend had raped her because he dumped her for another woman.

"I just wanted him to be hurt because of what he’d done," she said.

And she chose a vile weapon that might have sent him to prison for years and destroyed his life. A weapon that is used almost exclusively against men. The story furnishes no details as to whether the victim was arrested and jailed, or how long the false rape accusation hung over his head, or how badly the claim turned his world upside down.

But there is often nothing worse that can happen to any human being than a false rape claim.

And three months in jail is not a sufficiently serious punishment. It merely underscores that our society does not adequately protect victims of false rape claims.

A 29-year-old woman was arrested in Tembisa for laying a false charge of rape, police said on Wednesday.

Constable Tebogo Sesing said the woman laid the charge after her boyfriend convinced her to lie following a problem he had with another man.

Her boyfriend bought a shop from a 24-year-old man and failed to pay for it. The man then allegedly hired people to rob the person he owed.

Sesing said after the robbery police caught up with the woman's boyfriend and arrested him.

The man was released on bail and later convinced his girlfriend to lie to the effect that she had been raped by three men.

Sesing said the police then arrested the 24-year-old man and charged him with rape.

He said after investigations the police found out that it was a false accusation.

"Through intensive investigations the police established that it was a false case. They re-interviewed the woman... she confessed that her boyfriend told her to open a case of rape against the 24-year-old," he explained.

Sesing said the woman is detained at Tembisa police station and will appear before the Tembisa magistrate's court to answer a charge of perjury. - Sapa